Project to widen westbound 91 gets underway

Work crews broke ground Wednesday on a $64 million effort to dislodge a traffic chokepoint on the westbound 91 freeway with 4 miles of new pavement.

The project will mean some nighttime lane closures and occasional ramp closures, but transportation officials said most of the work will happen behind barriers and won't slow down motorists. By the time it wraps up in late 2015, it will have added a new westbound lane between the 57 and I-5.

The westbound side of the 91 isn't as much of a traffic morass as the eastbound side, which recently landed at No. 5 on a list of the nation's most miserable commutes. But the westbound side does jam up when it meets the 57, said Laura Scheper, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Transportation Authority.

That segment of freeway already sees around 130,000 car trips a day, including heavy truck traffic headed toward the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Traffic models anticipate thousands more cars joining the mix in just the next few years, driving the need for another lane and a solution to the 57-91 pinch, Scheper said.

The project will re-align some ramps and widen six bridges in addition to adding a new lane. Some of the ramps will close for nine days during the construction, Scheper said, but those closures have not yet been scheduled.

The state is picking up half of the $64 million cost, with the rest paid for by Orange County's half-cent sales tax for transportation improvements.

The 91 freeway has been under near-constant construction in recent years, with work crews racing to keep up with traffic volumes on the main route between Orange and Riverside counties.

An extra lane opened on both sides of the freeway late last year, also paid for with Orange County's half-cent sales tax. Planners are now considering another project that would widen the eastbound side between the 55 and the 57.